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A True Disciple

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As I sat down to write my little story this week my thoughts turned to our own Sisters here at Corpus Christi who always greet me with wonderful smiles when they enter the church and assist with our choir.

Sister Lucy O’Brien was born in the small village of Ballinderry near Lisburn, in Northern Ireland. She was a member of the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Rosary and a qualified medical doctor. At the age of thirty she was sent to Nigeria and worked in the mission hospitals for over fourteen years and stayed there all through the dangers of the Biafran war. She returned to the U.K. and after further studies in London, she qualified as a gynaecologist and returned to her beloved Africa,this time to Sierra Leone where she worked for four years before being assigned to work in Zambia, where she remained for the rest of her life. She was a skilled surgeon, as well as a gifted gynaecologist and thousands of Zambian women owe their lives to her competence and dedication. She did
everything she could to help tackle the Aids epidemic which at this time was sweeping though many of the African countries. She was also a deeply spiritual and prayerful person and she always treated each individual with respect as she responded to their particular needs.

When she was eighty, the Zambian government awarded her their highest honour, the Order of Distinguished Service. This remarkable Irish Missionary died in April 2006 after a lifetime dedicated to the poor, sick and needy of Africa.

Sister Lucy truly accepted the invitation given by Jesus to “Go out to the whole world and proclaim the good news” and she laid her skilled hands on the sick and brought them healing and comfort.

Pope Benedict XVI put it this way, “A Christian knows when it is time to speak to God and when it is better to say nothing and let love speak.”

“All noble things are as difficult to achieve, as they are rare.
What we produce comes from who we are spiritually.
When we find ourselves in a beautiful place inside, then we can create rare, noble things.”